[Geysers] Yellowstone June 19 (Stephens)

[Lynn Stephens]

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OR ANY OTHER PUBLICATION.

 

Today (6/19) turned out to be, with the exception of Great Fountain, a "cone" geyser day.

 

I wanted to try to catch the 60-second minor in the Atomizer series this morning.  After delogging, I moved the pickup to Biscuit Basin. The stars were clearly visible overhead when I left the government housing area, but geyser fog made it impossible to see much more than 20 feet as I was driving to Biscuit Basin.

 

As I approached Artemisia/Atomizer, I thought I could hear Atomizer erupting.  When I arrived at 0515, Atomizer was making bubbling sounds and gurgling.  This continued until 0523, so I knew Atomizer had had a failed attempt at a major, that it would be 2-3 hours before the next minor, and then another hour before the major (unless it did something I haven't seen it do before).

 

I was going to watch Mercury for awhile, but that very boring quite quickly.  Instead, I looked at the patch of gentians east of Mercury, and along the path to the junction with the Power Line trail.  

 

Artemisia was just coming to overflow out the main bowl into the sinter on the west at 0515.  At 0700 it was audible overflow out the north runoff channel was just starting.

 

I walked to the top of the hill on the path south from Artemisia toward Riverside to listen to Jim's 0700 "morning report," but never heard it.  Instead, I was rewarded with the opportunity to watch a snowshoe hare eating grass in the meadow.  I could clearly see th dark tips on its ears.  Whenever I startled it, I would bound away with the gargantuan white feet flashing warning signals that there was no way I could catch it.  After awhile it became comfortable enough with my presence that it moved onto the gravel path and started rolling around.  Its white underbelly was clearly visible.  I don't know whether it was trying to get rid of some itching fleas, or whether it was trying to get rid of some spiderwebs that had become entangled in its fur while it was bouncing around in the meadow.

 

This morning the spiderwebs were beautifully backlit and many of them were bejeweled with strings of water droplets that looked like shining crystals in the sun.  One spiral orb web spun was perfectly vertical in the top of one of the 6-8 foot lodgepole pine trees.  Each circular thread connecting the radials was delicately curved with about a quarter inch separation between the cricular threads.  Two long pieces of silk attached the web to a neighboring tree, anchoring the far sides of the web so that it remained upright.  One web was shaped like an elongated version of the Trans-America buildilng in San Francisco.  This almost tubular shaped web ran up the trunk of one of the little lodgepole pines.  The meadow was dotted with dozens of webs woven horizontally between the blades of grass.  One web was so densely woven that it looked like a piece of gauze draped over the grass.

 

While I was waiting for Atomizer, the resident marmot came out to bask on a corner of the rock wall in the warmth of the sun, something it hasn't had much chance to do lately.

 

Atomizer had the final minor at 07:39.  Grand erupted at 0742 and was clearly audible from Artemisia.  I once again walked to the top of the hill, but it was too steamy this morning to distinguish pulses of water or even tell how many bursts Grand had.  After Grand finished, I gave a prediction for the Atomizer major.  Scott joined me for the major at 0842.  I was hoping I would get a rainbow in Atomizer since I was going to miss the one in Beehive, but no such luck.

 

Before moving to Great Fountain, I watched the Pink Cone group for awhile and got to see an eruption of Labial.

 

Great Fountain had an L&E (lovely and elegant) eruption this afternoon.  The sun was shining on all the droplets.  The wind was blowing the steam away from us so we were able to clearly see each burst as the water sped toward the sky.  Those of us who stayed for the third burst were repaid by a blue burst in the third series.  Bill Warnock indicated I needed to write some doggerel for the person who left before the third burst--

 

Great Fountain's third, sometimes true,

    Rewards us with aqua hue.

College baseball, LSU

    Made Jere B miss the blue.

 

After Great Fountain Scott and I stopped at Pink Cone.  The road bubblers were functional, so we decided to wait.  Pink Cone erupted at 1416.  We are getting such infrequent reports that I have no idea what intervals are.  I'll try to get a start tomorrow (6/20).

 

After Pink Cone started I decided to spend the remainder of the day, and into the night, if necessary to see Lone Pine, unless it was an empty hole when I got over there.  I arrived at 1512 and Lone Pine was bubbling.  I finished my big book, "The Last Best Place."  I walked both sides of the road picking up garbage.  I cleaned out the back of the pickup.  Although I had originaly thought I would outlast Lone Pine no matter what, as the sun began to sink lower I began to remember how much I hate driving after dark, even with a new windshield that doesn't have as many stars as the former one had.  About 20:15 I decided I really didn't want to drive home once it got dark.  At 20:30 I marked in my logbook, "No Lone Pine yet," put on my seatbelt, and turned the key in the ignition.  I took one last glance at Lone Pine and saw that the surface of the pool was a seething mass of bubbles.  Lone Pine--2031.  As I was watching the first few minutes of the eruption, I realized the steam cloud was reaching high enough that the sun was hitting the top of it and there was a faint rainbow in the steam.  Of course, by the time I got my camera out and turned on, the steam column had declined and/or the sun had dropped far enough that the rainbow had disappeared.  So, although I didn't get to see a cougar on my way back from West Thumb, I did get to see Lone Pine and didn't have to drive home in the dark.

 

Lynn Stephens

 

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